Governor George Clinton’s Promises: What The State Of New York Really Owes The Onondagas

The Treaty of 1788 and the Era Before the American Revolution (1760 to 1775)

The negotiations that led to the 1788 treaty between the Onondagas and New York State were carried out within the context of re-establishing the pre-Revolutionary era. Thus Governor Clinton told the Onondagas:
“The [Revolutionary] War for a Time interrupted the friendly Intercourse which had subsisted between us, but we were never unmindful of your Interest. At the Commencement of Peace, we took the earliest Opportunity of kindling a Council Fire [in 1784] at this Place [Fort Stanwix/Fort Schuler] to revive our ancient Friendship.”

At the end of the negotiations, the Onondaga leader Black Cap (Tehonwaghsloweaghte), noted
“The Great Spirit above has chosen out this Day for finishing the Business of the Council Fire, at which we have revived the ancient Custom between your Forefathers of New York and Albany on the one Part and the Onondagoes on the other Part, even so far back as the Time of Queder Corlaer, als. [also known as; alias] Peter Schuyler [Schuyler lived from 1657-1724].”

The next year, on February 23, 1789, during negotiations with the Cayugas in Albany, Clinton was in the midst of persuading the Cayugas to accept treaty terms similar to those defined in the Onondaga treaty. Again evoking the era prior to the Revolution, Governor Clinton referred to the terms of the Onondaga treaty as meeting the needs of “their most flourishing days.”

Governor George Clinton in 1788
Given that both the Onondagas and Governor Clinton used phrases that defined the 1788 treaty as a re-establishment of the pre-Revolutionary era, Governor George Clinton lied when he assured the Onondagas that $500 “was more than … annually got by Hunting.” The annuity of $500 did not even come close to his claim. Clinton’s $500 was only 5.38% of what the Onondagas had obtained in the fur trade prior to the American Revolution.

Furthermore, Governor Clinton also conveniently ignored what the British additionally spent on administering Indian affairs, an administration that included blacksmiths. These blacksmiths and other white personnel all added to the value of the Haudenosaunee lifestyle.

To determine what was “annually got by hunting” in the prosperous era prior to the American Revolution, this report analyzes the Onondaga population proportionately to the trade records and to the population counts collected in 1763-1764 by Sir William Johnson, the Superintendent for Indian Affairs in the Northern District.

Haudenosaunee Lifestyle Before the American Revolution.

What should the Onondagas have expected if the pre-1775 fur trade lifestyle was the standard by which the 1788 treaty was negotiated? There were many Onondagas alive in 1788 who could recall the pre-1775 lifestyle. In terms of documents, this lifestyle is described in two important white sources: British records of Sir William Johnson before 1775, and the accounts by Patriot soldiers in 1779 who described their impressions of Haudenosaunee lifestyles at Onondaga and at other Haudenosaunee towns as they existed just before these same Patriots destroyed them.

On February 23, 1789, New York Governor George Clinton spoke to the Cayugas. He was expecting the Cayugas to cede land just as the Onondagas and the Oneidas had done as a result of treaties during the previous year. Clinton referred to the Cayuga land as ”the large dish” referring to the Haudenosaunee metaphor of the land as a bowl from which food would be obtained. Clinton also couched his speech in terms that evoked the prosperity of the pre-Revolutionary era, referring to that era as the “most flourishing Days.” Clinton then noted that the funds that the State would provide to the Onondagas, the Oneidas, and the Cayugas would provide a lifestyle that was “more than your Nation [the Confederacy] annual [annually] got by Hunting [beavers and other fur bearing animals].” The definition of this financial support was a particularly important statement because the Haudenosaunee were slowly recovering from the devastations of 1779 and would therefore have seen the pre-Revolutionary era as the standard they wished to regain.

The following pages describe what material goods made up that pre-Revolutionary lifestyle, when hunting beavers and other fur bearing animals – combined with their extensive agriculture — made the Haudenosaunee prosperous. Because Clinton’s promise extended into the future, the descriptions of the material goods in the lifestyle of the Haudenosaunee can also be used to imagine what Clinton’s assurances of a continual, equivalent material lifestyle would now be in the twenty-first century – although such speculations are not made in this report.

Obligations of the State of New York to the Onondagas as a result of the 1788 negotiations.
In 1788, New York Governor George Clinton defined exactly what obligations the State of New York would undertake. These obligations guaranteed a lifestyle to the Onondagas that would surpass the prosperity they had enjoyed before the American Revolution, when the Haudenosaunee participated in the lucrative fur trade:

“Care and protection”

Enough land for 4,000 Onondagas

One-time only payments of “1,000 French crowns in money, and two hundred pounds [Sterling] in clothing.” Governor Clinton explained that the one thousand French crowns were provided so that the Onondagas could “purchase Cattle and other Stock.”

Annual payments of “$500 in silver” that would make the Onondagas more prosperous than they had been before the Revolution when they had engaged in the lucrative fur trade: “to the Onondagas five hundred Dollars [in silver],” more than “annually got by Hunting.”

The Range of Trade Goods.
In a letter from Sir William Johnson to Jeffery Amherst, February 12, 1761, Johnson “Inclosed is a List of Such Goods as are usually wanted and bought by the Indians.” Johnson then listed the goods usually traded to Indians, entitled “A List of Such Merchandise as is Usually sold to the Indians ‑‑ the prices differs with the times.”

Three years later, in 1764, Sir William Johnson listed goods traded to the Haudenosaunee and other Indians, including the costs. In his list, Johnson notes that the Indian nations throughout Johnson’s Northern District, including the Haudenosaunee, allocated one third of all the goods they obtained through trade to “the children of Each family.”

Charging the Indians twice what the goods cost — a profit for the whites of one hundred percent, as noted earlier in this paper, would make up the costs of all goods traded to the Indians. In the 1760s, there were at least 750 Onondaga men, women, and children. These 750 Onondagas represented 1.5% (.015) of the Indian population in the Northern District – that is, the lands north of Virginia and of the Ohio River; and from the Atlantic Coast westward to the Mississippi. In this report, the calculations of Sir William Johnson for all trade to all the Indians in his Northern

District will be broken down to estimate the Onondagas’ share by using the fact that the Onondagas represented 1.5% of the total Indian population. This use of a strict percentage (1.5%) applied to the Onondagas’ population and trade is conservative because it does not take into account the fact that the Onondagas’ lifestyle was of higher quality than the lifestyles of remote Indian nations in the western Great Lakes.

In Sir William Johnson’s lists and calculations, he notes that one third of the trade goods obtained by the Indians were intended “for the use of the Children of Each family.” In the list below, the symbol £ represents the British Pound Sterling. Hypothetically, if 1.5% (.015) of the total trade goods listed by Sir William Johnson were obtained in trade by the Onondagas, the 750 men, women, and children in the Onondaga Nation would have acquired the following each year:

Exclusively for the Onondaga children: goods including blankets, clothing, and other items for the children worth a total of £875 (Sir William Johnson’s figures for children are not broken down into categories).

The total cost to the British of all the goods obtained by the Onondagas in the fur trade totaled approximately £2,694. But Johnson noted that the prices would be doubled by the traders so that the whites would obtain a one hundred percent profit. Thus the Onondagas would have had to trade furs worth a total £5,388 in order to obtain the goods Johnson listed.

From the 1760s through the 1790s, New York currency was about 58% of Pounds Sterling (£). For Governor Clinton to match the £5,388 which the Onondagas were obtaining in trade goods before the Revolution, Clinton would have had to promised to give the Onondagas an annual amount of $9,290 not $500!

Even more glaring, Clinton’s promise of an annual support of $500 would not even cover twenty percent of the amount the Onondagas were obtaining for their children! Of the £5,388 in goods that the Onondagas were obtaining in the fur trade, £1,750 worth of these goods was for their children (the British cost of goods for children, in this case £875, was doubled for a one hundred percent white profit). Thus Clinton’s $500, converted to Sterling as £290, would have covered only about 17% of the £1,750 in goods which the Onondagas obtaining for their children!

Onondaga and Seneca Towns: Examples of Haudenosaunee Prosperity

Ironically, some of the best records of Haudenosaunee lifestyle come from those Patriot troops who marched through Haudenosaunee country during the devastating invasions of 1779. Thus Captain Thomas Machin, Second Regiment, New York Artillery, recorded his views of the Onondaga settlements that Colonel Goose Van Schaick and his Patriot troops destroyed. Machin chose not mention the rape by Patriot troops of Onondaga women, but he does note that there was so much “Plunder” that the men could not carry all of it away, and so destroyed what they could not carry away.
Their Settlements … Extended Eight Miles in Length, with some [other] scattered habitations lying back of the Costs [coasts or shores of Onondaga Creek]…. We took thirty-three Indians & one white Prisoner, & killed twelve Indians; the whole of their Settlement, consisting of about fifty Houses, with a quantity of corn, and every other kind of Stock [domesticated animals] we found whare [were] killed; about one Hundred guns, some of which ware Rifles, was among the Plunder, the whole of which, after the men had Loaded with as much as they could carry, was Destroyed, with a considerable quantity of ammunition …. in fine, the Destruction of all their Settlements ware [sic] compleat [sic].

Captain Leonard Bleecker recorded that Onondaga was
a considerable Indian Settlement … which was entirely destroyed, with a large Quantity of Grain, Cattle, Horses, and Ammunition, except such Part as could be conveniently brought off.

The Senecas along the Allegheny River Valley were also attacked in September 1779. An expedition under Colonel Daniel Brodhead set out northward from Pittsburgh to coordinate hisassault with Sullivan’s assault into other Seneca territories as well as the lands of the Cayugas. Brodhead recorded his impressions of the prosperous Seneca towns he destroyed, including material goods he described as “plunder” that was worth $30,000 and which he had sold with the profits given to his soldiers.
Immediately after ascending a high hill we discovered the Allegheny River & a number of Corn Fields, & descending several towns which the Enemy had deserted on the approach of the Troops…. this Town was called Yoghroonwago, besides this [in addition to this town] we found seven other Towns, consisting in the whole of one hundred and thirty Houses, some of which were large enough for accommodation of three or four Indian families. The Troops remained on the ground three whole days destroying the Towns & Corn Fields. I never saw finer Corn altho’ it was planted much thicker than is common with our Farmers. The quantity of Corn and other vegetables destroyed at the several Towns, from the best accounts I can collect from the officers employed to destroy it, must certainly exceed five hundred acres which is the lowest estimate, and the plunder is estimated at 30 m. Dollars {$30,000], I have directed a sale to be made of it for the benefit of the Troops.

The Greatly Diminished Role of Agriculture in Governor Clinton’s Promised Rebuilding of the Onondaga Economy.

Prior to the American Revolution, agriculture was of course a major part of Onondaga prosperity. In 1788, Haudenosaunee agriculture had not yet recovered from the devastations of 1779. In this context, Clinton made his promises in the midst of two major changes in the Onondaga land base.

Although the Onondagas could hunt and fish throughout the lands ceded in 1788, both the Onondagas and Clinton knew that incoming white settlers would have an impact on hunting and fishing.

In 1788, Clinton’s demand for an extensive land cession eliminated vast stretches of land that the Onondagas could use for agriculture, especially for traditional “satellite” communities that often relieved both pressures on the land and social pressures within the main Onondaga community that was traditionally centered along the corridor of Onondaga Lake-Onondaga Creek.

Specifically, the land cession of 1788 reduced the Onondagas’ fertile band of land known to geographers as the “till plains” and especially within the concentration of fertile land which scholars have termed the “core area” of Onondaga agriculture (please see the map that appears after the last page of this report).

The Onondagas’ constricted land base also meant it was no longer possible to conduct traditional Haudenosaunee agriculture which moved the plantings of corn and other crops to different fields to allow earlier fields to lay fallow and recover from the plantings. To facilitate movements to new fields, whole towns were also moved and rebuilt at new sites as often as necessary. Towns could be inhabited for at least ten years before it was necessary to relocate them, but the times varied.

To make matters even more complicated, this diminished agricultural land base occurred as the Onondagas were still trying to recover from Colonel Goose Van Schaick’s devastating expedition against them in 1779, when Onondaga towns, fields, and orchards had been destroyed by Van Schaick’s Patriot army.

In this complex context, Clinton’s guarantees to the Onondagas promise not only to rebuild the Onondagas’ material success as it existed prior to the Revolution, but also to exceed that material prosperity.

Without Adjustments for Inflation, Annuities Could Not Have Functioned According to the Treaty Obligations Governor Clinton Promised.

Since Governor George Clinton assured the Onondaga Nation that the State of New York would sustain a very high level of living standard among the Onondagas, logic indicates that the annuities and other programs of support — “care and protection.” — should have been adjusted for inflation and the costs of living as the years passed. Governor Clinton also recognized that the Onondaga Nation would grow in numbers; that hunting would not long support the Onondagas; and that material support would come from the State of New York in compensation for the ceded lands.

Thus the promises Governor Clinton’s government made were based on the Governor’s projections of the future.

Captain Thomas Machin, Journal, 1779, in Frederick Cook, ed., Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan Against The Six Nations of Indians in 1779 with Records of Centennial Celebrations (Auburn, New York: Knapp, Peck & Thomson, 1887), 193

Captain Leonard Bleecker, “Order Book,” 1779, in Frederick Cook, ed., Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan Against The Six Nations of Indians in 1779 with Records of Centennial Celebrations (Auburn, New York: Knapp, Peck & Thomson, 1887)

Colonel Daniel Brodhead, September 16, 1779, to General George Washington in Frederick Cook, ed., Journals of the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan Against The Six Nations of Indians in 1779 with Records of Centennial Celebrations (Auburn, New York: Knapp, Peck & Thomson, 1887), p. 308.

Franklin B. Hough, ed., Proceedings of the Commissioners of Indian Affairs, Appointed by Law for the Extinguishment of Indian Titles in the State of New York. Published from the Original Manuscript in the Library of the Albany Institute (Albany, New York: Joel Munsell, 1861), p. 192. Note: The one-volume edition is used in this report. The 1861 publisher, Joel Munsell, also released a two-volume edition, but a comparison of each edition by Venables indicates that the page numbers are identical (in the two volume edition, the text of volume two is numbered “257” and thus the two volume edition uses the same pagination as the one volume edition).

John J. McCusker, How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (Worcester, Massachusetts: American Antiquarian Society, 1992), p. 333.

Robert John Hasenstab, “Agriculture, Warfare, and Tribalization in the Iroquois Homeland of New York: A G.I.S. Analysis of Late Woodland Settlement” (Ph.D. Dissertation; Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts), p. 76 and maps, pp. 288-333; and William Engelbrecht, Iroquoia: The Development of a Native World (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2003), pp. 90-92

Sir William Johnson, February 12, 1761, to General Jeffrey Amherst, enclosure: “A List of Such Merchandise as is Usually sold to the Indians — the prices differs with the times –” in Sullivan, et al., eds., The Papers of Sir William Johnson, III, 334

Sir William Johnson, October 8, 1764, to the Lords of Trade, “A State of the Indian Trade,” in James Sullivan, et al., eds., The Papers of Sir William Johnson, 14 vols.; (Albany, New York: University of the State of New York, 1921- 1965), IV, 559

Treaty at Fort Schuyler, formerly called Fort Stanwix” between the State of New York and the Onondaga Nation, September 12, 1788, in New York State Legislature, Assembly Document No. 51: Report of the Special Committee Appointed By the Assembly of l888 to Investigate the “Indian Problem” of the State [Whipple Report] (Albany, New York: Assembly of the State of New York, 1889), p. 190.

Treaty at Fort Schuyler” Report of the Special Committee Appointed By the Assembly of l888 to Investigate the “Indian Problem” of the State [Whipple Report], p. 191.

William Engelbrecht, Iroquoia: The Development of a Native World (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2003), pp. 101-107.